Drum completes acquisition of stalled DeTrafford project

The Scottish outfit is now seeking to get the Castlefield site ready for its redevelopment into an apartment scheme.

Drum Property has completed the acquisition of DeTrafford’s stalled Gallery Gardens plot in Manchester, which has planning permission for 366 apartments.

Located off Ellesmere Street in the city’s Castlefield district, the £94m project entered administration in early 2023 without a brick being laid.

Now, Drum’s £2.25m deal has completed following a successful court application to clear the site’s title.

There were 72 unilateral notices on the title that were filed by investors who had paid a combined £2.1m in deposits for flats within Gallery Gardens that DeTrafford failed to deliver.

The latest report compiled by administrator BDO estimates these investors will get nothing through the administration process.

Lender Daiwa was owed £25.1m by the two SPVs attached to the Gallery Gardens project but Drum acquired that debt in 2024, as first revealed by Place North West.

Another lender, Maslow, is owed £11m by the Gallery Gardens vehicles by way of cross guarantees against other DeTrafford projects.

Unsecured creditors are owed £7.2m by the two companies, the majority of which is intercompany debt.

Under Drum’s ownership, the project could soon get going. The developer has applied for permission to demolish the buildings on site, namely a double storey former hardware store.

Drum was contacted for comment.

Most active in its Scottish heartlands, Drum also has schemes south of the border. Last year, the developer lodged plans for Whitehall Sidings, a 391-flat build-to-rent scheme in Leeds.

The firm was also one of the underbidders on the Stockport 8.